Robocare Expands with IRobot’s Telemedicine Practice

Telemedicine laws continue to define online health ventures, but meanwhile industry expands robotic telemedicine options.The Boston Globe reports on the advent of I Robot:

Military and consumer robot manufacturer iRobot Corp. in Bedford will unveil a new product Tuesday intended for the health care industry as it diversifies its product line in preparation for looming defense cuts.

The 5-foot-4-inch, 140-pound “telemedicine” robot will be produced in partnership with InTouch Health of Santa Barbara, Calif., a maker of in-hospital robots, and is designed to help patients with health emergencies get more rapid treatment from specialists — especially at night, when hospital staff levels are lower, the company said….

Called RP-VITA, the robot allows doctors to virtually visit patients in distant locations, carrying on conversations and even taking measurements in real time. Equipped with cameras, microphones, 3-D mapping sensors, a stethoscope, and a video screen “head” that automatically swivels to listen to voices, the robot transmits and receives video, audio, and navigation instructions over a Wi-Fi broadband connection.

Doctors, patients, and hospital staff control the robot with a specialized terminal or via a software application that runs on Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer, and talk to one another using a Skype-like video chat displayed on the robot’s main screen.

This robot is a far cry from Issac Asimov’s intelligent robots or the AI (artificial intelligence) robots whom Ray Kurzweil predicts will pass the Turing Test and pass for humans in the near future. But it’s a start.

Telemedicine, online medicine, or e-health is the wave of the future. The Cohen Healthcare Law Group helps clients with telemedicine legal issues, whether involving telepsychiatry, telehealth generally, or any medical or healthcare specialty using telemedicine. Contact us our telemedicine legal team for a consultation. Call us today or have your robot contact ours.